One Comment

Why is this piece being framed as women “choosing cesareans” instead of doctor’s “giving” cesareans to women? Since any scheduled cesarean is coded as “elective” (whereas non-scheduled ones are coded “emergency”), there simply isn’t any data available that shows how many women truly “elect” their cesareans and the numbers are thought to be less than 1% of the national total. There were 67 VBACs at St. Joe’s in 2010 compared to 284 repeat cesreans (see http://mhcc.maryland.gov/consumerinfo/hospitalguide/hospital_guide/reports/find_a_condition/condition_types_b.asp?condition_cd=Moms) I’m hoping that the doctor quoted from there is doing everything possible to turn those numbers around.

Perhaps the study should include the reason for disappointment in moms who planned vaginal births and ended in c-section. I had an unplanned c-section that wasn’t an emergency, but I did agree to it without really being informed of the risks of the surgery and the “consequences”. I didn’t even realize there was any controversy over having vaginal births later and didn’t know anything about “VBAC” until after I had a miscarriage a year after my first child was born. Lets not confuse the results of this study with women (generalized) as gaining more fulfilment from the outcome of RCS.